Booming

Electronic Arts (EA), one of the largest video game companies in the world, just sold for $55 billion, a record for a leveraged buyout.  The sale is sending shockwaves through Seattle's video game industry. Not just because a lot of people in Seattle worked on EA games, but because the company is banking its future on generative AI.  Generative AI has created a cultural conflict so deep, it's sliced the video game industry in two -- like a battle axe through a rotten zombie.  On one side: indie game developers and their fans who believe video games are an art form that should be made by humans. On the other: big companies pushing generative AI that could replace workers, making games cheaper and faster to produce.  Today: can generative AI make better games than humans can? Do we want it to?  Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.  Coming up: Have you or someone you know decided to go to a trade school instead of pursuing a four year degree? If so, we want to hear from you. Tell us why. Give us a call at (206) 221-7158 and leave a voicemail with your experience -- it could be featured on an upcoming episode. You can also email us at booming@kuow.org. Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Coding looks like one of the first real-world skills AI is close to mastering. And AI coding tools are helping a lot more people build apps and websites – no technical expertise required.   But there’s a problem. It turns out, handing the keyboard over to a robot can end up costing more time and money than hiring a human to do that work.  Today, the unintended consequences of replacing human coders with AI. And what can we learn about embracing this technology too fast from the cleanup crew mopping up AI slop.  Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.  Coming up: Have you or someone you know decided to go to a trade school instead of pursuing a four year degree? If so, we want to hear from you. Tell us why. Give us a call at (206) 221-7158 and leave a voicemail with your experience -- it could be featured on an upcoming episode. You can also email us at booming@kuow.org. Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The long-awaited trial between Amazon and the FTC is over... after just a few days. Amazon has agreed to pay $2.5 billion to settle the case over its Prime membership program.  On this bonus episode, Joshua and Monica were in the courtroom during the trial, so they sat down to chat about what they heard during the hearings and why they think Amazon might have settled the case so soon. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.  Coming up: Has there been a moment when you have encountered something that you're pretty sure was written by AI in a place that you didn't expect? If so, we want to hear from you. Give us a call at (206) 221-7158 and leave a voicemail with your experience -- it could be featured on an upcoming episode. You can also email us at booming@kuow.org. Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have you ever found it impossible to find the “unsubscribe” button? Maybe you’ve accidentally opted into “accepting all cookies?” Then you may have fallen for a "dark pattern." Dark patterns are at the heart of a lawsuit between Amazon and the federal government. The FTC claims Amazon used dark patterns to trick millions of users into subscribing to Prime without meaning to. And the complaint says Amazon created a long, difficult process full of roadblocks that stopped Prime members from unsubscribing. The trial kicked off in Seattle this week, and the outcome could change how companies sell us stuff online. Today, what are dark patterns? And how could a crack down on them change how we experience the internet?  Guest:Harry Brignull, a user experience designer and psychologist in the UK. Founder of the Deceptive Patterns Initiative, a nonprofit advocating against deceptive design. Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.  Coming up: Has there been a moment when you have encountered something that you're pretty sure was written by AI in a place that you didn't expect? If so, we want to hear from you. Give us a call at (206) 221-7158 and leave a voicemail with your experience -- it could be featured on an upcoming episode. You can also email us at booming@kuow.org. Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

College football season is here! If you follow college athletes on Instagram, you may have noticed -- they're doing a lot more commercials lately. And for doing this work, some athletes are raking in big bucks.  A court settlement this summer determined that students have a right to make money from sports. And for the first time ever, universities will be the ones to pay them.   How this new money flows will determine which college athletic programs thrive, and which ones will watch from the sidelines.  On today's episode, who should profit from college sports?   Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes. Coming up: Have you ever found yourself subscribed to a service online, or signed up for something, and you have no idea how it happened? We want to hear from you. Give us a call at (206) 221-7158 and leave a voicemail with your experience -- it could be featured on an upcoming episode. You can also email us at booming@kuow.org. Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Every year, tens of millions of tourists visit Seattle’s Pike Place Market, the Elliot Bay waterfront, and sports stadiums.   That tourism industry is growing -- this year, a record number of cruise ships are expected to fill Seattle’s piers. Next year, the population of Seattle will swell- to about double its normal size when it hosts the Word Cup.  On today's episode, Seattle needs tourists to keep downtown economically viable — so how do we make sure they don’t love the city to death?  Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes or help fuel KUOW's fall fund drive at www.kuow.org/donate Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Thrifting has long been a favorite pastime of Seattleites, so much so that we have the biggest Goodwill store in the world.   But buying second-hand is also an economic survival strategy for people who can't pay full price on back-to-school clothes or home appliances.   Now, in this increasingly expensive city, there's a sense that thrift stores are no longer fitting that need. On today's episode, Monica talks to an expert on thrift culture about the economic forces shaping second-hand shopping and why some say it might not be the place for bargain-hunters anymore.  Guest:Jennifer Le Zotte, author of From Goodwill to Grunge: A History of Secondhand Styles and Alternative Economies Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.  Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

It's music festival season. Seattle's own Bumbershoot is just days away. But music festivals across the country are on shaky financial ground, and their futures could be in trouble. Over the past few years, dozens of small festivals have been canceled, and even the biggest ones are showing some signs of softening demand.  On today's episode, why is it so hard for this generation of music festivals to find their rhythm? Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.  Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For decades, owning a home was considered a golden ticket to economic security. The reality looks a lot different today -- the median price of a single-family home in Seattle is around $1 million, and the greater Seattle area is the third most expensive in the nation.  So, why do prices keep going up? And what would it take to make the dream of owning a home in this city affordable again?  We put those questions to a real estate economist.    Thank you to the supporters of KUOW, you help make this show possible! If you want to help out, go to kuow.org/donate/boomingnotes.  Booming is a production of KUOW in Seattle, a proud member of the NPR Network. Our editor is Carol Smith. Our producers are Lucy Soucek and Alec Cowan. Our hosts are Joshua McNichols and Monica Nickelsburg.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Millions of people are asking tools like ChatGPT questions every day. But your questions don’t just fly up into the ether. They go to a real place.  AI has a backend, and it looks like massive data centers sprawling across farmland in places like central Washington.   Data centers provide the essential infrastructure needed to run AI apps and everything else we do on the internet. And tech companies say they bring economic prosperity to communities that desperately need it. But those benefits come at a cost. On this week's episode, we travel to a place where the data center boom is well underway to find out how the AI boom is reshaping small towns.Support the show: https://kuow.org/donateSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.